No Stone Left Unturned
by Draxen47
Summary: Dragged into a strange new world full of amazing creatures and with seemingly no way to get back, Danny and his friends are going to need all their skills and talents if they ever hope to return home. And maybe develop a few new ones along the way.
1. Chapter 1

"_And if you look out to the left, you'll see the most diverse collection of green in the entire Ghost Zone."_

Danny sighed, putting the Specter Speeder into full thrust to try and shorten their journey. "You know, there are other colors besides green in this place."

Tucker took in an exaggerated breath. "You're absolutely right! Look over there!" He said, pointing at another collection of ectoplasm. "There's _light green! _Oh! And look over there, what do you see? You guessed it... _dark green!"_

"There's purple over there," Sam couldn't help adding in, the only one of them that was standing. It couldn't be helped though, there were only two seats in the cockpit, and there was no way Danny was giving up his spot.

Besides, he was piloting.

"Arghh! How far away can this thing be!" Tucker whined for what might have been the sixtieth time. "It feels like we've been in here forever!"

Danny contemplated for a second if this was what it was like to be a parent. His respect for his Mom and Dad went up as he realized that they would've probably had to deal with this for years.

He glanced at his best friend, who was now spinning the swivel chair around in circles at a dizzying pace, before he stopped and began revolving in the opposite direction.

_Still dealing with in some cases, _he thought.

"You know, you guys didn't have to come with me," Danny informed them, blinking his eyes tiredly, "I would have been fine doing this on my own."

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence as Tucker came to a stop from his rotations and he along with Sam both stared at him.

"You mean, you don't want us here?" Sam finally said, her voice as soft as a slow violin.

Her hurt expression was mirrored by Tucker's.

Danny's eyes widened, and he went back over the words he spoke to them, cursing inwardly as he realized how they could have been interpreted. How they had been interpreted.

"Wait! N-no. That's...I wasn't-I didn't mean it like that," he stuttered out, trying to reorganize his thoughts. "It's just... um, you know what? Never mind. Let's just drop it." He turned his attention away from them, focusing all his thoughts into flying the small craft. They were almost at their destination anyways.

He couldn't afford to be distracted.

"Danny," Sam began, her concern flowing from her like a river. "What's the matter? You've been acting... different... for awhile now. And not just to us, your family has noticed it too. They're worried."

Tucker took over next. "We know you've been spending a lot more of your time hunting ghosts than usual, especially without us there with you. I mean, seriously man, do you even remember the last time you got some sleep?"

_School, _Danny immediately recalled. He'd managed to catch a few winks during class. Or was that yesterday? Better not to tell them either way.

"Look, Danny." Back to Sam. Apparently they're taking turns. "We're not saying you have to do anything right now, but we just want you to know that if you need to talk, we'll be here for you. We'll always be here for you, no matter what."

Danny had never felt such conflicting emotions than right at that moment. They're words had made his heart soar, and he knew without a doubt that he had the two best friends in the whole world. But they still didn't understand that that was the reason he had to keep them safe.

His line of work was just... dangerous by definition. He'd almost died more times than he cared to count anymore, and that was factoring in that the only reason he was even still alive was because he was half-dead in the first place.

Yeah, if Danny's life was an English Paper, they would probably have to base their thesis on irony just because of how much of it there was.

But Sam and Tucker? They didn't have the same advantages that he did. And one day, he wouldn't be there to save them.

_Ah, what the hell was he talking about!? _He was only 15 years old. He was supposed to be worrying about acne and chasing after girls, not whether his every decision could mean life or death for those around him_._

_But who else could, or even would do it. _He'd saved lives. He knew that much, and it was probably because of that that he kept going out every night, to keep making a difference.

And look where that had gotten him. He'd pushed his family and friends away from him. His grades, which had always been subpar, were now on the verge of failing. That was if he even showed up to school at all. Sometimes he just... didn't go.

Something more important would come up. There would _always_ be something more important that came up.

"You... you don't get it," he told them, head hung so they couldn't see his face. "I don't have a choice anymore."

Sam made to speak again, but was interrupted by a beeping on one of the speeder's instruments.

Danny flicked a couple switches, before pulling the ship to a stop. "We're here,"

His gothic friend gave him a pointed look, one promising that they would be finishing this conversation later.

That was fine. He'd be better prepared after some more time passed.

"Uh, am I missing something?" Tucker asked, gesturing at the endless expanse that was The Ghost Zone. "What's so special about right here?"

"Nothing... yet," Danny left off ominously, activating the Specter Speeder's advanced sensors and tuning them so they began recording data, numbers and charts appearing as it automatically began correlating everything it collected together.

"Aw, come on Danny! You're killing me with the suspense!"

"Just wait for it."

"Wait for it? Wait for wh-HOLY [expletive deleted]!"

The space in front of them ruptured apart with a wave of dark energy, blasting past the Specter Speeder and throwing all its passengers to the floor as it trembled. The lights flickered briefly, and there was a scary moment when the entire craft went dark before it rebooted itself.

In the confusion Sam stole Tucker's seat, being the first one to recover. So enraptured with the phenomena that Tucker didn't even notice, or even really care as he stared into the abyss that had exploded into existence right before them.

It could be called a sphere, in a general sense, but it was more amorphous than anything, constantly expanding and contracting like a heart of darkness.

"_Wha-What the hell is that_!" Tucker shouted, looking between his two friends. "I-I'm not the only one seeing this right!"

"Trust me Tucker, we see it too," Sam whispered back, like she was trying to be quiet so as not to get noticed by _it_.

Danny cleared his throat, taking turns between glancing over the readings the sensors were picking up and seeing it with his own eyes. "So, uh, yeah. I guess, this is it. Why I wanted to come out here with the Speeder."

Tucker turned to look at Danny with disbelieving eyes. "Jeez, Danny, you think maybe having a little more distance between us and the scary looking black hole of death might have been a good idea?"

Danny guided the Speeder further away from the anomaly, his brow furrowed in contemplation. "I did though... it-it's bigger than the last time I came across. And it definitely wasn't that unstable."

As if to prove his point, the proverbial hole in space began flashing brightly, beams of light contouring out of it as it continued to fluctuate in erratic patterns.

Tucker and Sam leaned towards their half-ghost compatriot with rapt attention, urging him to continue with his explanation.

"I've known about it for a little bit now, after seeing it just pop up out of nowhere one day, but it disappeared before I could get a better look at it. Occasionally, I'd see it here and there, always at different places, never remaining in one area too long before collapsing in on itself and showing up somewhere else, usually after a cool down period. I guess, it was gathering the energy it needed in order for it to manifest itself again."

"Yeah, yeah," Tucker drawled impatiently, "but that doesn't explain what it is."

Danny's eye started twitching sporadically. "I was getting there, before you decided to interrupt me," he growled out, grinding his teeth together. "Ehem, so, you know how portals can naturally form in The Ghost Zone to basically anywhere in time and space? Well this is one of them. Just different. I think this portal actually leads to a whole other dimension, which is probably why it looks so weird."

"Of course, that was all after I had designed an algorithm based on its past appearances to predict where it would show up next."

"Wow," Sam said, completely astonished. "Just... wow. You… you really did all that." She shook her head, as if trying to shake the threads of disbelief from her head. "So then… do you know where it leads?"

Danny shrugged. "Well I threw some ecto-rays into to it, just to see what would happen, but that just made it dissipate faster. I'm still a little cautious of bringing 'real-world materials' into The Ghost Zone after the last incident with Walker, but I guess we break that rule with the Specter Speeder all the time. Other than that though your guess is as good as mine." He looked out into the portal, still swirling in its own gravity-like pull.

"I was actually thinking of making a probe or something, send it through and have it relay back what's on the other side. That's actually why I wanted the Speeder, its got powerful enough sensors that it can give me an idea for what I need to shield the probe for when I design it."

"Uh, sorry to interrupt," Tucker, well, interrupted, "but does it look like there's something on the other side?" The computer geek squinted behind his glasses, trying to discern the shadowed outline of a form that was just barely visible within the portal.

Sam and Danny squinted right along with him as they noticed the same thing.

"Yeah," Danny agreed, "it does."

A bit coincidentally, that was at the exact moment the computer showing all the different sensor readings began acting up, like a Richter Scale during an earthquake.

"That can't be good..." Sam commented in warning, a bit at a loss for what to do.

The readings spiked again suddenly, and the shape in the darkness shifted.

They watched as the gateway slowly shrunk, smaller and smaller until it was but a near unseeable pinprick in the hollow background of the fluxing dimension.

Then it exploded again, expanding even more than before. And expanding. And expanding. And definitely not contracting. If it kept growing at the rate it did, it wouldn't be long before it expanded enough to encompass them as well.

"Uh, Danny?" Tucker asked, his voice shaking a little bit. "I think now would be a good time to get us the hell out of here!"

"Already ahead of you," Danny reassured, flipping the Speeder around in a breathtaking 180, and punching the engines into full speed.

Except they didn't move.

Actually, worse, they were moving closer towards the aphotic portal, like they were being dragged into it.

"How come we aren't leaving!?" Sam fearfully stammered, watching as they were pulled further and further away from freedom.

"It's the portal!" Danny answered, simultaneously trying to divert all the power the ship had to maybe give them the extra boost they needed. "It's sucking everything nearby into it, and we're already too close to get away!"

Tucker gulped. "Well we better think of something, cause I don't think we're going to like what that thing on the other side has in store for us. Don't your parents have some sort of portal nullifying invention or something like that?" He asked hopefully. "A Fenton Destabilizer we can throw at it maybe?"

Danny scoffed at him, but Sam's eyes lighted up in a realization. "Wait! That's it! Tucker you're a genius!" She almost went in to hug him too, but decided against it.

"I am?" Tucker replied confusedly with barely any intelligence at all.

Danny bristled in annoyance, still furiously tapping away at buttons as he began to reroute power from even the life support systems. Hey, if it didn't work it's not as if they'd need it anyways. "I hate to break this to you Sam," he chided sarcastically, "but my parents haven't actually built an invention for every single situation possible. We don't have any "_Fenton Destabilizers" _or anything that that will save us."

"But we do!" She assured, choosing to ignore his tone I'm favor of dealing with the present situation. "Remember when you told us that when you shot your ecto-rays into it, it caused it to destabilize and disappear? Well how about now? You think you can discourage whatever is on the other side that's causing this?"

Danny paused for a second, before grinned wickedly, his transformative process already taking place and changing him into his alter ego. "Kukuku," he chuckled evilly, "who do you think you're talking to here?"

Already he was sinking through the floor, letting his intangibility phase him outside into The Ghost Zone.

It was always so much more different being there with just his person than in the Specter Speeder, probably a little like how astronauts felt going out from their shuttles into space with less than an inch of fabric between them and an empty vacuum of nothingness.

Except in The Ghost Zone, it was filled with ectoplasm of every kind, the very same substance that powered everything extraordinary Danny did. Already he felt rejuvenated, the extra energy pulsing through his veins like liquid fire, ready to be used and directed as he wished.

And if he, say, wished to cause massive amounts of destruction, well then, there would massive amounts of destruction.

Neon green beams left his hands, tearing their way into the portal, diminishing it wherever they hit, forcing back the tide of the vortex further and further.

And yet… it wasn't enough.

The Specter Speeder was still falling slowly down, he right along with it, approaching ever closer to an unknown fate.

Danny needed something more powerful.

Intangibility was out. He still felt the pull of the portal as he used the ability to exit the Speeder, and invisibility was just as in this situation.

How about his ice-powers?

Well, it was worth a shot at the very least.

He closed his eyes, reaching down into his core, his very being, searching for the nature he knew existed there, just waiting to be called upon.

There it was, floating in his heart of hearts. The spark of his frost. The cold of his breath. The chill of his mind. He called it to him, drawing it and molding it through his body, feeling it. Becoming it.

Icicles formed across his arms and into his hands, his aura burning with a icy heat as it radiated outwards, going so far as to start freezing over the parts of the Specter Speeder he was closest to, sparkling with an unnatural crystalline glow.

He opened his eyes, releasing a flash of two blazing frozen orbs, smoking like they were made of dry ice. His arm pointed towards his target autonomously, almost emotionlessly, a sort of frozen fury that he seemed emanate in cascading waves of glacial blue, surrounding and swirling around him protectively.

A sliver of frosted light arced into his hands, coalescing together before lancing out in an oscillating stream of energy, solid ice simply materializing and branching off from it as it penetrated the abyss, an obscured shadow of it flowing even further as it struck whatever was lying in wait on the other side.

The creature, and that's what it was for he could see it more clearly now, recoiled away with an agonized roar, which even though muffled by the differences in dimensional bearing still clawed at his eardrums, ripping and tearing into his mind in an all-consuming symphony of torturous punishment.

But it had definitely distracted it. The unknown force holding him and the Speeder faltered, weakening enough that he felt himself flying forward away from the portal, the Speeder right on his tail, escaping from the event horizon.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing slightly.

He'd done it. They were safe.

He could see Sam and Tucker through the transparent reinforced glass of the Speeder's cockpit, and he waved at them, flashing them a thumbs up. They gave him a thumbs up back, looking a little worse for wear, but still holding together having been exposed to similar potentially deadly situations for a while now.

That's when everything went wrong. Again.

He felt it, from his core, a cold gust of air expelling from his lungs like it was trying to give him a moments warning, but it was already too late.

He'd made a mistake.

He'd assumed that the creature had either been unable or unwilling to cross over into their realm, choosing to wait as its prey were dragged to it instead of doing it personally.

How wrong he was.

One second, it was on the other side of the dimensional rift, and the next, it was just about five meters behind him, materializing in their world with naught but a whisper before the overwhelming weight of its mere presence settled on him like an anvil, freezing him in place.

It seemed fitting that the world slowed down, seconds ticking for forever, each their own little eternity to experience, allowing him to burn the images into his mind as they passed frame by frame before his eyes.

Sam and Tucker, still, staring endlessly at the _thing_ behind him.

Him, turning, the movement leaving an echo of the world as it trailed slightly behind what he was really seeing, caught in the past as it was.

And the monster, existing, serpentine and alien, towering over him as six ribbons tipped like claws flowed out from its gray-purple body, red and black stripes flowing down its neck like a kobra. The most elegant feature about it though was the auriferous armor that shielded its head and neck, which then jutted out on the sides of the main body like thorns, sharp and angular.

And deadly.

A simple twitch of its tail and he was flung away, the impact shattering him.

He belatedly realized through the pain that he was sent right at the portal, a pretty good shot from the creature all things considered.

When did he get on the topic of baseball? He hated baseball. Though he bartered he would be much better at it now, with ghost powers and everything.

Wait… he had ghost powers?

Oh yeah. Ghost Portal. Duh.

Where did Tucker and Sam go? He knew they were there when he first got his abilities, they'd always been there. They'd promised to always be there for him.

The Specter Speeder re-entered his field of vision, being hauled like a piece of salvage by the creature, which followed his trail as he approached the dark gateway, its own natural pull reigning him in like a magnet. Oh, there they were. His friends pale faces screamed at him through the vehicle's windshield, but he didn't hear them.

That's right, he'd needed to leave the Speeder in order to destroy the portal.

Oh. _Oh. Oh no..._

_Nononononono..._

Darkness creeped over the edges of his vision, and it took him a moment to realize that it wasn't because he was losing consciousness.

_He'd entered the portal._

The viridescence of the Ghost Zone stretched away from him, fading and absorbing into the nothingness that slowly took over, encompassing him and leaving him drifting on, alone.

This was it. After all this time he should have known it was coming, right? It's not like he expected to keep fighting ghosts for the rest of his life.

Actually, that's exactly what was going to happen.

He was going to die.

_Regret._

_He was..._

Stupid. Naive. Reckless. Everything Plasmius had told him, had warned him he was and more.

_His family…_

He would never see them again. He would never get to tell him how much he loved them. _How much they meant to him._

_His friends…_

They trusted him. Relied on him to protect them. And he failed them.

Somewhere in the background he heard the creature roar victoriously, followed by the shearing of metal as it was forcibly split apart.

_He'd failed them all…_

Danny closed his eyes.

…

…

…

…

...

…

…

…

…

…

_**NO!**_

Danny's eyelids lifted, exploding in a fiery eclipse of green energy, his light blazing like a newborn star.

He still had one more trick up his suit.

The new dimension was even weirder than the Ghost Zone, if that was even possible. Everything seemed to be reversed, like someone had taken the normal world and simply flipped physics up on itself. Down was up and right was left and everything was just chaos for confusion's sake, and at the center of it all, was the creature.

It was ripping apart the Speeder, its spiked streamers tearing through the reinforced metal hull like it was made out of tissue paper. _Tucker. Sam._

Putrid... vile... _hate, _rose up in Danny's body like a demon and he felt himself growling, the ecto-energy molding it into something animalistic. _No one_ tries to kill his friends and gets away with it.

It was the creature's turn to freeze this time, whether from hearing his rumbling or from sensing his emotions he didn't know, and frankly, he didn't care.

He was going to _destroy _it..

It spun around to face him, giving a single shrill cry before charging at him, releasing the remains of the Speeder as it did so.

_Good, _Danny thought. He wouldn't have even considered doing this if his friends would've been caught in the crossfire.

He began gathering his ghostly energy, layering it over his throat, building upon it more and more as he prepared his most powerful, and most dangerous attack.

Even as the creature shot towards him like a bullet, he continued to gather the ectoplasm,, ignoring the blood that leaked out of his mouth and how quickly the monster gobbled up the distance between them.

He waited. Waited for the right moment.

Fifty meters.

Twenty, ten, five… Now!

And as the creature was practically right on top of him, streamers reaching out to impale his flesh, he _screamed_.

He wasn't even sure if it had a sound as the waves of pure ghostly sonic force crashed head on with his opponent. _It was just that loud._

The creature didn't know what hit it.

At first coming to a complete stop in front of him, the next series of wails sent it in the opposite direction, each hit eroding and peeling away bits of its skin as it howled silently, its own noises unable to penetrate the silence caused by his Ghostly Wail.

The structures in this world fared just as bad, if not worse. They shook and crumbled, and then they fell apart, the whole area around them seemingly breaking apart at its very seams, disintegrating before his eyes.

He kept screaming, on and on, even as his voice went raw and then failed completely he still screamed, refusing to stop until he was sure his attack had done its job.

When he finally couldn't hold it any longer he released the ability, collapsing in mid-air as he hacked up blood which then floated away from him in a multitude of directions, some of it even coming right back to land on his hazmat suit.

He wanted to close his eyes so badly right then, to just close them and let sweet, sweet darkness take hold and make everything better, but he was still needed.

_His friends._

He half-glided, half-drifted over to the many pieces of the Specter Speeder which had fortunately managed to avoid most of his obliterating voice. He didn't even bother with trying to phase through it he had so little energy, and settled for squeezing through one of the many gaping holes it now sported, immediately making his way to the cockpit and finding Sam and Tucker.

Danny admitted to himself, simply seeing their chests rise and fall with the breath of life had tears leaking from the corners of his eyes as he once again collapsed right next to them, hugging them to him.

"D-Danny?" Sam whispered, reaching with one hand to stroke his tear-streaked cheeks, caressing them softly.

Danny tried responding, but he couldn't make a single sound leave his mouth, and resorted to nodding his head in assent to her, temporarily mute as he was.

"I… I need to tell you… you… yo…" She slipped off into unconsciousness, her wounds along with the last few minutes finally catching up with her. She probably thought she was dying or something like that. Made him wonder what she was trying to tell him.

Danny brushed one of her raven locks out of her face and trapping it with her ear, smiling as he realized that she was pretty cute when she was sleeping.

*SNORE*

And the moment was ruined. Danny gave an annoyed glance at Tucker, sighing as his friend continued to make the loudest, most disturbing sounds in his sleep as humanly possible.

Danny still smiled though. These were his friends after all.

"_GROAAARRR!"_

The sound chilled even Danny's ice core.

_There was no way it survived that… I hit it with everything I had, _he thought.

And yet when he looked out the window, there it was, in all of its menacing glory. It was hurt, of course, parts of it simply missing in some places, black ichor flowing from its wounds and cracks and dents all over it, but it was still _standing. Floating actually, _he corrected himself, before shaking his head, dismissing the thought.

_How can something be so powerful?_

Instead of charging him again, it went for a different tactic, gathering its own ghostly energy into a condensed ball, and aiming it directly at the Speeder.

_Uh-oh._

Thinking quickly he grabbed his friends under his arms, nearly losing his grip on them as pain shot up his arms through his entire body.

He'd overworked his body too much. Any longer like this and he might actually kill himself.

_Not important, _he reminded himself, _saving them is._

Pushing the agony to the back of his mind through some measure of will, he focused on the one thing that might actually save them, and slammed a big red button and held onto his friends for dear life, hoping that it still had enough power to work.

His prayers were answered a moment later when the entire cockpit of the Speeder sectioned itself off from the rest off the ship, popping out like a compressed spring as it shot away from the empty husk of the once great Specter Speeder. And not a moment too soon, as the vehicle was immediately slammed into by the creature's purplish ghostly energy ball, causing it to explode in a brilliant flash of fire that propelled Danny and his friends at even greater speeds.

The creature roared again, this time in frustration, before speeding off after them charging up another attack as it did so.

Danny desperately searched for a way out. They were basically a sitting duck the way they were; the escape pod had no maneuvering capabilities and he had no way to navigate this crazy world even if he could direct the pod in any way. All he'd been doing so far was avoiding death by the slimmest margin, but he wasn't sure how much his good luck was going to hold out on that front.

_Damn it! There had to be a way out!_

_Wait… there! Another portal!_

It was a golden white gateway for a change, and almost directly in the path of the pod.

_Almost, but not close enough. _They would miss it by just a couple of meters from what he could see. He had to change that.

He didn't know where it would lead. It could be back to the Ghost Zone, back to Earth, or even to a whole new dimension that had its own physics and rules. All he knew was anywhere was better than here.

Another ghostly energy ball was launched at them, just barely glancing off the glass of the cockpit. Cracks spider-webbed through it as the pod was sent into an uncontrollable spin, much like the gravitron ride at that one carnival he remembered going to. Well, slightly different situations. Slightly.

Brief glimpses of the creature, the portal, and the odd dimension shuttered intermittently between each other as the pod cycloned through the air, or whatever the hell made up the space in this place. Danny began tapping his foot, synchronising it with every time the portal showed up.

He carefully watched as the the cracks in the glass splintered apart, crinkling and chiming as the integrity grew more and more compromised. He would only get one shot at this.

He'd better make it count.

He pushed off the wall of the pod, grabbing onto the last wisps of his energy as he burst through the already fractured glass, one of his friends cradled under each arm. Twisting around to face the creature, he managed to shift Tucker around enough that he was able to flip his middle finger up at it, smirking as they disappeared into the portal and out of its sight

Judging from the look on its face though, well, from what he could see anyway, Danny was absolutely sure it had understood what that meant.

_How's that for witty banter._

The transition into the new dimension was much different than that last. Regal white and gold coils of light rushed past them, eventually becoming so bright it was blinding, burning spots into his retinas even through his eyelids.

Abruptly it ended.

Then they were falling.

Freezing drafts of air blew through them, their clothes and hair flapping in the wind. He offhandedly noted Tucker's beret flying away, musing at how pissed he was going to be about that when he woke up.

That is, of course, if they weren't all pancakes after they landed.

Danny could just barely make out a mountain now, its peak shining with the portal they had just come out of. _Well, not the worst place to show up, _he supposed, _it could've been a volcano._

He desperately struggled for his power, any tiny smidgen of it that could at least slow down their descent, digging deeper and deeper into his core for that familiar touch of ghostly energy, but there was nothing left.

He'd used it all up.

And so they fell. And he could do nothing except position himself between the ground and his friends as the ground approached closer and closer, seemingly rising up to meet them.

The impact was heard for miles.

* * *

**So maybe an explanation is in order. This is a Danny Phantom x Pokemon story with Danny and his friends being brought into the Pokemon Universe by a certain Pokemon (shouldn't be that hard to guess but whatever) and basically getting stuck there. They will be getting their own Pokemon to train (spoiler they're still alive, wow big surprise) and all that cool stuff.  
**

**I must warn you, I'm pretty sure Danny is going to exclusively use Ghost Pokemon (it just makes sense to me), but I may be convinced to make an exception or two, depending on what you guys suggest in the way of ideas. Gotta admit, I'm still a sucker for trainers focusing on a single type, and then utilizing it to its most potential while working around any weaknesses that comes along with it. I like leaving diversification to the people that always take the easy route. Was that an insult? Probably. Should you be insulted? Meh.**

**So... I'm really interested in what you guys think. Leave a review, point out something I did wrong, or just flame me for whatever reason. Everything's a learning experience I guess.**


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N:_**

_**April Fools!**_

_**There's no new chapter… I just wanted to torture you on this most glorious holiday.**_

_**…**_

_**…**_

_**…**_

_**JK, here you go.**_

XxX

**No Stone Left Unturned**

**Chapter 2**

Danny was cold.

He couldn't remember feeling cold since the day he developed his ice powers. Well, not normal cold at least. To him, cold was a state of being. It felt natural. It felt safe.

This ordinary cold, however, was uncomfortable and foreign. A splinter underneath his skin that just couldn't be pulled out. He was being submerged in his own nature, slowly drowning in one of his greatest strengths like all those tragic heroes before him.

Irony. It always came back to irony. The universe's final laugh at any feeble attempt to achieve something. The punchline of reality. It hung over Danny like the Sword of Damocles, just waiting for the right moment to fall and pierce his heart.

Maybe one of these days it might actually finish the job.

Maybe, but not today.

Danny let his eyelids slide up slightly, immediately closing them again as a flashbang of light forced its way in. Instinctively, he raised an arm to shield his sensitive eyes, only to cry out when the limb in question exploded with pain. Or at least tried to. His screams were so quiet that they were more like whispers than anything else.

He definitely wouldn't be calling anyone for help.

It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the pain receded to a manageable level. A bit more wary, Danny was prepared for the onslaught of photons that sieged his optic nerves when he opened his eyes again, letting them adjust properly this time. He only grew more confused, however, when everything remained a sea of indistinguishable white.

Danny's fingers twitched, upsetting the powdery substance that had covered them. _Snow_, he realized. He was being covered with snow. Why would he be-

It all came rushing back. The portal. The monster.

_Tucker! Sam! Where-!_

A flash of yellow and purple caught his eye. He crawled over to it, ignoring the pain from the movement.

_His friends._

_Oh God._

There was just so much blood…

Their bodies…

They were so _still_…

Danny's hands hovered over them, too afraid to touch their broken forms.

"Sam? Tucker?" he rasped desperately, an edge of fear creeping into his weak voice.

Danny's neck prickled and he whirled around, his instincts screaming at him. Energy raced to his arms in preparation to fire an ecto-blast, but it was all for naught as it immediately fizzed out, leaving him more drained than ever. He collapsed in the snow next to his friends, his vision blurred and his head pounding.

_No! I have to get up! I have to move! I have to save my friends!_ Somehow he managed to force his arms under his body, propping himself up on his knees. He glared into the haze of snow where a triangular shape began to take form. Two incandescent turquoise orbs stared back.

A cry filled the air, carried by the howl of the wind. It echoed hauntingly, a certain hollowness to it that reminded Danny of his own wail.

Another cry answered.

Then another.

More joined in, and suddenly Danny wasn't looking at one pair of eyes. He was looking at dozens. They surrounded him, a circle of spotlights that shone down on the hybrid from every direction he turned.

Their cries continued, falling into sync and magnifying, a concert of sound that encompassed everything.

It was the most beautiful thing Danny had ever heard.

Something wet carved a warming trail down his cheek. Tears. He was crying.

Whatever strength he had seemed to fade and he felt himself falling back.

Down…

Down…

Down...

Into the embrace of unconsciousness.

XxX

**_You don't belong here._**

_Wha-what? Who… Who are you?_

**_This is not your world. Leave._**

_Where am I? What is this place?_

_**You have upset the balance. You will return to your realm, or you will perish.**_

_Please! Just tell me what's happening! What's going on!?_

**_This is your only warning._**

_No! Wait! I need-_

XxX

"-answers!" Danny shot up in his bed, eyes wide and alert. "What…?" he looked around in confusion. He was in some sort of hospital, that much was obvious, but there was nothing distinguishing about it that told him where he was _exactly_. His eyes stopped roaming, however, when they landed on what looked like a teepee sitting on his legs. A teepee with the same luminous eyes from before.

Danny blinked. The teepee blinked back. It chittered at him through its teeth, which looked large enough to be on a nutcracker doll. It almost seemed like it was... smiling at him.

Danny scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uhh, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on, would you?"

The teepee-looking animal just chittered at him happily.

Danny sighed. "Right," he said. "Worth a shot, though." He'd just find his answers somewhere else.

He went to pull up the bed covers but stopped, glancing at the creature who was still resting contentedly on top of them. "You mind?" Danny asked, flapping the sheets to give it an idea of what he wanted.

If anything it only made it burrow further into its comfortable position.

Danny could already feel a migraine forming. "Fine then, we do it the hard way." He smirked, grabbing the creature by its fur-like teepee coat and lifting it up. It immediately started crying angrily, waving its stubby arms at him fruitlessly while he used his feet to kick off the covers. Once finished, he placed it back down on the now sheetless bed.

It looked up at him sadly, somehow managing to appear hurt.

Danny couldn't help but start laughing at it.

It then tried glaring at him but only ended up looking more cute, causing Danny to laugh even harder.

With one last indignant chitter, it turned around and promptly started ignoring him.

Danny's amusement only rose in response. That is until his eyes caught a warning sign on some innocuous medical poster.

_**This is your only warning.**_

The words resounded in his head like a church organ, halting his laughter in its tracks.

The cloaked creature glanced back at him curiously, noticing the change in Danny's behavior.

Smiling at it, Danny rubbed its cloak comfortingly, though he wasn't sure which of them he was trying to comfort.

There were just too many things to worry about. _How did he end up in the hospital? Was he in his own dimension? What was that monster that attacked him and his friends? What happened in that snowy landscape? What was that voice that spoke to him in his sleep?_

He inspected the little creature that was leaning wholeheartedly into his ministrations. _What was this thing?_

And most importantly, _where was Sam and Tucker?_

He couldn't stay here if he wanted to find out.

He slid out of the bed, frowning at the lack of sensation when he put his feet on the floor. He definitely wasn't paralyzed, he could still move his entire body, but he'd been expecting an enormous amount of pain give that he'd practically been mummified in bandages.

_Painkillers_, Danny realized. An IV stretched from his arm to a diagnostic machine next to his bed where several bags of a clear liquid and blood were hanging.

_Blood. They had his blood._

This was bad. This was _really_ bad. The last time someone got their hands on his DNA he ended up with a female clone of himself.

_Who knows what else could be done with it?_

He'd have to find it and destroy it before he inadvertently ended up with another cousin, or worse.

Thinking about Dani reminded him that his family was probably worried sick about him. Well, at least Jazz and Dani were. His parents were notoriously blind when it came to their children, but even they'd realize something was up sooner or later. Not to mention both Tucker and Sam's families.

Dammit. _Could things get any worse?_

Danny's eyes tracked upwards to the readouts being displayed on the diagnostic machine. "I just had to say it, didn't I?" he wondered tiredly, massaging his temples.

It had his heartbeat and body temperature.

For anyone else that wouldn't have been a problem, but being one of only three exclusive members of the half-dead community meant his normal bodily functions were well below the normal for everyone else.

Case in point, having a resting heart rate of eleven beats per minute and a temperature of 89.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

_Well, that's gonna take some explaining._

If they weren't already suspicious of him that was a definite tip-off.

Danny sullenly added it to his list of things to worry about.

He'd stopped petting the creature at some point and it got his attention back by nudging his side forcefully, a determined expression on its face.

Danny looked down at it in surprise before smirking in return. "Yeah, you're right," he agreed with the creature, somehow understanding its intentions. "I can't be feeling sorry for myself. I've got work to do!"

He leapt to his feet, which in hindsight might not have been the best idea as he started swaying unsteadily, but he had more important things to focus on. Taking a moment to let the vertigo pass, Danny then turned back to the creature.

"First things first," Danny declared, "I can't just keep calling you 'it' or 'the creature' in my mind. You need a name."

Oddly enough it nodded its head, like it knew what he was talking about.

"What do you think of _Princess_?" he asked, referencing its previous temperament.

'Princess' warbled gleefully at the designation, apparently taking such a liking to it that it accidentally let a burst of freezing air loose, lowering the temperature in the room by at least ten degrees.

That was one way to show a temperament.

Danny blinked at it in surprise yet again. "Right. You _also_ have cryokinesis, cause why not? That's ok. I can deal with that," he said, clearly not dealing with it.

Princess let out a satisfied chitter, and it didn't take Danny long to figure out that _he_ was the one being laughed at.

"Well, you just better hope you're a girl," Danny told the newly discovered ice manipulator, "cause I'm not changing it."

Princess continued to laugh at him.

Danny sighed. "Come on, Princess, let's go find my friends."

XxX

**_A/N:_**

_**Huh. So… yeah. It's been awhile, hasn't it? Wasn't supposed to be, but time just kinda flew by. At first, I promised myself I'd have a new chapter by the end of the week. That soon became two weeks. **_

_**Then three. **_

_**Then a month.**_

_**Then a year.**_

_**Well, not quite. I did technically beat the yearly deadline by three days, haha.**_

_**Hah… I'm sorry. The wait truly was long, wasn't it?**_

_**April Fools really motivated me, which tells you a lot about how I get my jollies.**_

_**I'm not so sorry about that part. I'm quite satisfied with myself actually.**_

_**Ehem. Yeah...**_

_**Well, this chapter isn't exactly the size of the first one, almost a third of it actually, but I'm hoping smaller chapters will lead to more in the long run, you know? That totally isn't because I want more views and reviews. Shame on you.**_

_**But I am certainly grateful for those who took the time to review even when it appeared all hope was lost.**_

_**This is your reward.**_

_**Enjoy it puppies.**_

_**P.S.**_

**_You all know which Pokemon I gave Danny, right? I hope you do. Some people didn't know it was Giratina in the first chapter. Yeah, you know who you are. You should feel bad._**

**_No not really, please don't go, I loooooove you…._**

_**P.S.S.**_

**_Oh and I'm truly sorry for what comes next…_**

**_See you in another year!_**

**_Haha… jeez, I hope not..._**


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